Efficient Conversion of Pine Wood Lignin to Phenol

Obtaining chemical building blocks from biomass is attractive for meeting sustainability targets. Herein, an effective approach was developed to convert the lignin part of woody biomass into phenol, which is a valuable base chemical. Monomeric alkylmethoxyphenols were obtained from pinewood, rich in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:ChemSusChem 2020-04, Vol.13 (7), p.1705-1709
Main Authors: Ouyang, Xianhong, Huang, Xiaoming, Boot, Michael D., Hensen, Emiel J. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benzene
Biomass
Communication
Communications
demethoxylation
Depolymerization
Lignin
lignin-first
phenol
Phenols
Silicon dioxide
Transalkylation
Zeolites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Obtaining chemical building blocks from biomass is attractive for meeting sustainability targets. Herein, an effective approach was developed to convert the lignin part of woody biomass into phenol, which is a valuable base chemical. Monomeric alkylmethoxyphenols were obtained from pinewood, rich in guaiacol‐type lignin, through Pt/C‐catalyzed reductive depolymerization. In a second step, an optimized MoP/SiO2 catalyst was used to selectively remove methoxy groups in these lignin monomers to generate 4‐alkylphenols, which were then dealkylated by zeolite‐catalyzed transalkylation to a benzene stream. The overall yield of phenol based on the initial lignin content in pinewood was 9.6 mol %. Into the woods: Phenol, a valuable base chemical, is obtained from renewable woody biomass through lignin reductive depolymerization, demethoxylation, and transalkylation. The promising overall yield of phenol based on the initial lignin content in pinewood is 9.6 mol %
ISSN:1864-5631
1864-564X
DOI:10.1002/cssc.202000485